The present invention is generally related to copy machines and, more particularly, to a method and device for recording data representative of the usage of a copy machine.
In recent years, the leasing or rental of copiers and the like has increased significantly. It has become common to base rental rates either totally or partially upon the amount of the usage of the machine. Most often, the rates are determined by the number of copies made in a predetermined time usually corresponding to the billing period. The rates may also vary as a function of the types of copies made. For example, ten copies of a single original may cost less per copy than ten copies of ten different originals. Counting devices or the like are usually provided with each machine for recording the number of copies which have been made. The user or service man reads the counter periodically and forwards such information to the leasing company for billing purposes.
Such an arrangement is an inconvenience to the person responsible for recording the information. Also, errors may occur in writing down the counter readings. In addition, the user may intentionally record an incorrect figure in an effort to reduce the amount of billing or defer full payment until the next billing period. Another shortcoming of this arrangement is the cost of processing the handwritten data for billing purposes. Considerable time and expense is entailed by the leasing company in making calculations based upon the handwritten data and typing or printing each customer bill. With the advent of optical character recognition (OCR) equipment and the like, the cost of billing customers can be significantly reduced if the input data is of a quality suitable for scanning by OCR equipment. Thus, there is a need for an arrangement which will eliminate errors in recording the copier usage data and at the same time provide such data in a form which is more suitable for processing through the use of optical character recognition equipment or the like.